I saw Edna’s hand groping for the button which controlled the buzzer.

“Who is it?” Roberta asked.

Edna turned to her. Her quivering lips couldn’t answer.

“The police, of course,” I said, grabbed Roberta’s wrist, and rushed her to the door.

Chapter Sixteen

There was a bend in the corridor about twenty feet from Edna’s door. I kept my hand on Roberta’s wrist, guiding her down the corridor and around this bend.

“But what—” she said. “Why—”

“Hush,” I whispered. “Wait.”

There were steps on the stairs.

“If it’s one man,” I whispered, “we wait here. If it’s two men, we beat it.”